Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Californians Against Hate, a pro-gay rights group, is exposing the major contributors to that state's Proposition 8, which would ban same-sex marriage in California. Among those on the list is Elsa Prince, mother of Blackwater founder Erik Prince and matriarch of one of the wealthiest and most powerful conservative political families in Michigan. Prince donated $450,000 to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign. Californians Against Hate has released a TV commercial specifically aimed at Prince's donation. Here's the video, which frankly isn't very good. It's a takeoff on LBJ's infamous Daisy Girl ad, but that is certainly lost on most people and it doesn't really say much.
Prince is hardly alone in giving her money to this campaign. Other notable figures include John Templeton, chairman of the Templeton Foundation who gave $1 million.
Another name that jumped out at me was Howard Ahmanson Jr, the reclusive heir to a massive bank fortune who has supported a long and controversial list of causes. For more than a decade, Ahmanson served on the board of the Chalcedon Foundation of Christian Reconstructionist R.J. Rushdoony. Christian Reconstructionists go much further than merely opposing gay marriage; they openly advocate for the establishment of the Mosaic law from the Old Testament of the Bible as the civil and criminal law of the land -- including public stonings for gays and women who are not virgins on their wedding day. Ahmanson has also been a major contributor to the Discovery Institute.
Politics
Comments
Well, there went the last shred of what respect I might have once had for the Templeton Foundation.
Posted by: Eamon Knight | October 27, 2008 10:04 AM
But of course, it's the "Vote No on 8" organization that's trying to press outside values on Cali
Posted by: nedlum | October 27, 2008 10:20 AM
Eamon, my feelings exactly. I actually had Templeton down as reasonable for some reason. Can't think why now.
I can think of a few individuals who would probably be very pissed off to hear about that donation.
Posted by: Paul Schofield | October 27, 2008 10:26 AM
Templeton does an award for progress in Religion. It's been given to numerous people, not all Christian and not all exactly arch-conservative by a longshot (I want to list Rudolf Bultmann as one of the people who received one; he was not exactly a conservative theologian and he's the type of liberal theologian whose politics I'm guessing are likely left.)
I also want to say John Haught won one for a book called Finding Darwin's God.
Posted by: KKairos | October 27, 2008 10:31 AM
Templeton prize winners
Posted by: Herod the Freemason | October 27, 2008 10:44 AM
Sir John Templeton was the reasonable fellow. He died earlier this year. His son the evangelist, John Templeton Jr, is now in charge of the Templeton Foundation.
Posted by: william e emba | October 27, 2008 11:03 AM
Ummm... "the public stonings of individuals who are not virgins on their wedding day"?
I would laugh, but you might be right about that, and that's a really scary thought.
Posted by: JStein | October 27, 2008 11:22 AM
Feh -- things always get ugly when people stay trying to buy their way into a place that doesn't exist.
Posted by: tacitus | October 27, 2008 11:27 AM
Posted by: Herod the Freemason | October 27, 2008 11:31 AM
See, what that ad needs in order to make it good is a voiceover by Lyndon Johnson, saying, "We must love each other, or we must die." (I really love the "Daisy" ad . . .)
Posted by: Eleanor | October 27, 2008 5:43 PM